FATTENING BLOGS FOR SNAKES

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

ANN ARBOR, MI - Organizers of the 47th annual marijuana rally in Ann Arbor are hoping this year's Hash Bash on April 7 will be the last one before cannabis is legalized in Michigan.

They're counting on state voters to approve a ballot proposal in November to legalize recreational marijuana use for people 21 and older, taxing and regulating it much like alcohol.

"For the first 46 years, really the focus has been on state prohibition," said Hash Bash lead organizer Mark Passerini, co-founder of the Om of Medicine marijuana dispensary in downtown Ann Arbor.

"This could very well be the last year we focus on state prohibition and next year we could re-focus toward the ills of federal policy. Federal policy still sees cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug in all forms."

The Hash Bash Planning Committee has announced the lineup of speakers and entertainers for the April 7 rally taking place on the University of Michigan's Central Campus Diag. It's scheduled to last from noon to 4:19 p.m., which is longer than in years past, and it's expected to draw thousands of cannabis users and allies.

"We wanted to give people something to look forward to -- to do on their own -- at 4:20," Passerini said of why the Diag festivities end at 4:19 p.m. "We figure they might be busy at 4:20."

Ann Arbor musician Laith Al-Saadi, who achieved fame as a finalist on NBC's "The Voice," is expected to kick off this year's fest, as he has in the past, by performing the national anthem on guitar.

Politicians, professional athletes and leading marijuana legalization activists from around the country are expected to speak.

"Hash Bash has grown each year since the passage of Michigan's medical cannabis laws. The event has also gained importance as a venue for activists, patients and public figures to speak out against the horrors of cannabis prohibition," committee co-chair Nick Zettell said in a press release announcing this year's lineup.

"With the question of legalization likely on the ballot, this could very well be the last Hash Bash where cannabis is illegal in the state of Michigan," Zettell added. "The qualifications and reputations of this year's speakers are unparalleled by years past and add legitimacy and diversity to the counter-cultural event."

Politicians and candidates on the speakers lineup include gubernatorial candidates Gretchen Whitmer and Abdul El-Sayed, state attorney general candidate Dana Nessel, Ann Arbor City Council members Jack Eaton and Anne Bannister, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, state Senate candidate Jeff Irwin, and state Rep. Yousef Rabhi. Passerini also plans to read a statement from U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer.

Athletes on the lineup include Detroit Lions running back Mike James, former Detroit Red Wings hockey player Darren McCarty, and former NFL player Eugene Monroe.

Passerini said it's significant that James, an active pro athlete, is speaking out. He said James may be putting his career on the line but feels it's important to do so.

Local bands Ma Baker, Honey Monsoon and Cosmic Knot are scheduled to perform starting at 2 p.m. The full schedule can be found on the Hash Bash mobile app.

While it's not unusual for many people to light up a joint at Hash Bash, UM warns that it's not an amnesty day where campus police look the other way on pot smoking on campus.

While the university allows the rally to happen as a matter of free speech, campus police follow state law and will arrest people caught with drugs, including marijuana, on university property. Elsewhere in Ann Arbor, pot has been decriminalized since the 1970s, with the city penalty for possession being a $25 ticket for a first offense.

This year's Hash Bash once again coincides with the annual Monroe Street Fair, which features live music and vendors.

A Hash Bash after party also is taking place at the Blind Pig, featuring Laith Al-Saadi and the Macpodz.

Passerini said more and more people are coming to Hash Bash from all over the place, including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, so the festivities on the Diag have expanded to accommodate the crowd size. In addition to the Diag and Monroe Street, he said there may be a third venue added next year, possibly Ingalls Mall where the Ann Arbor Summer Fest is held.

Several marijuana policy organizations are involved with this year's Hash Bash, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy at UM, Green Wolverine at UM's Ross School of Business, MILegalize, Michigan NORML, Student Advocates for the Medical and Responsible use of Cannabis, and the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol.

Irwin said marijuana prohibition has been a failure of government just like alcohol prohibition was a failure.

He argues regulating it in a legal environment gives more control over it than "keeping it underground."

"Almost nobody thinks prohibition is working," he said, arguing pot is less harmful than alcohol from a public health perspective.

A group called Healthy and Productive Michigan is opposing the legalization proposal, arguing there are economic, safety and health concerns that come with recreational marijuana use.

"We are committed to keeping Michigan's economy thriving and our citizens healthy, by preventing the legalization of recreational marijuana in Michigan," the group states on its website, arguing any tax revenue from legal marijuana is outweighed by the societal costs "just like tobacco and alcohol, where costs far outweigh revenues."

About 57 percent of Michigan voters support marijuana legalization, according to a recent poll of 600 likely voters conducted by the Glengariff Group, The Detroit News reported last month.

The Hash Bash committee is hosting two free panel discussions at UM on Sunday, April 8, the day after the political rally.

The first is from 2-3:10 p.m. at the Michigan League and is titled "Athletes and Cannabis." Panelists include Mike James, Eugene Monroe and Darren McCarty.

The second is from 3:15-4:19 p.m. at the Michigan League and is titled "Medicine and Cannabis." Panelists include cannabis researcher Sue Sisley, UM Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Gus Rosania, and Evan Litinas, chief medical officer at the Om of Medicine marijuana dispensary in downtown Ann Arbor.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

The story of the Beatnik Youth album begins in London. John Sinclair was visiting to perform with guitarist Al Clayton and his band The Dirty Strangers, Gigs organised in part by Ian Grant, including a double bill with Zodiac / Youth. Martin ‘Youth’ Glover came into John’s orbit and found a kindred spirit in John, proposing they work on a jazz project together. Sure enough plans were laid out for John to travel to Kingston College Of Music in London, to a recording session set up by Youth. The list of musicians in the large room was staggering: George Butler, Hugo Wilkinson and Steven Pratt on drums, Al Clayton and Brian James and James Sedwards on guitars, Youth on bass, Angie Brown and Mark Stewart on vocals, Alex Ward on saxophones and piano, Michael Rendall on organ plus recording duties. The energy in the room was huge.

John’s words switched from a whisper to a roar, screaming against the wall of guitars for his old gang, and then undressing the piano with a hushed prayer to Thelonious Monk. The musicians tracked all afternoon and managed to subtly fuse straight ahead rock & roll with a jazz sensibility, and a tonal blanket of sound that exploited all the instrumentalists and vocalists at the session.

Over the next 12 months, Youth, John and Michael Rendall edited, shaped and overdubbed new parts to create Beatnik Youth V. 1.0. New editions included such UK heads as Bobby Gillespie and Howard Marks R.I.P who added the perfect authentic taste to an underground classic. The late great Mick Farren penned some delightful liner notes, and Ian Grant of track records, quickly produced a small run of 300 copies on compact disk. Due to unforeseen obstacles, Beatnik Youth 1.0 was never properly released, and so sat as an unreleased album project, poems and sound in purgatory.

Enter Mark at Iron Man Records. After unprecedented support from Mark in preparing and releasing the album Mohawk by John Sinclair in 2014, he expressed interest in reviving the Beatnik Youth project from its zombie state. Three years later, in 2017, we can thank Mark, and Ian, and Youth and John for combined efforts to give the album a proper release and promotional campaign worthy of the material. Thanks are also due to Sean Newsham at Mutante for his excellent work on press, and to all the reviewers and writers who picked up on this sleeping giant.

In the space of three years this team of volunteers for the most part, led by Youth and Mark, created a separate mini-EP titled Beatnik Youth Ambient that featured two ambient remixes of tracks from the original session, plus two new works with material from Howard Marks and a new piece called ‘Do It’ by John. The album was mastered and pressed to 12” vinyl. Youth stayed up all night and drew the artwork himself depicting John among a whirlwind of illustrated 1960s psychedelic symbolism. Beatnik Youth Ambient was released July 28th, 2017. Pick up a slice of this historic wax and let it spin, you’ll be lifted I guarantee.

Beatnik Youth V. 2.0 is the new album, a deluxe double CD with re-mastered and re-edited tracks including the new recordings from Beatnik Youth Ambient resulting in 90 minutes of music. The album has been lovingly designed and constructed by Russ Clarke. If anyone is familiar with a Jack Kerouac 1st edition, or the events that unfolded in Detroit in July 1967 you may find this album interesting. The double CD with unlimited streaming and download is available now via BandCamp and will also be available from Cargo (see end notes).

And finally, to the music: “Testify,” opening like the doors to a Persian hash lounge, with piano and guitars and singers swaying to the breeze of the bard’s voice. The tale begins, the great world outlook of John Sinclair is accompanied by a chorus of cherubs repeating the word ‘testify.’ The poet returns with “friday the 13th,” a lament to Thelonious Monk and John Lennon, the tragedy spilling onto the keys, Alex Ward hammering and the guitar feedback building, the poem zooming to a grand concrescence of heart and head, leaving the listener engrossed. Drums dart in and out, the 2nd poem ends with a statement of intent for there to be more men like Monk and John Lennon, and that we should be able die when it’s time for us to die, not by some punk with a weapon. The drums return and the bard delivers “Fat Boy,” guitar feedback buzzing under another blistering poem critical of the American love affair with bombs and destruction, and the atrocity of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Good Stuff. Classic British rock & roll, driven sideways by George Butler on drums and vamped up and out by a chorus of guitarists, the poet reads and bleeds for his friends, his music and loves, his poetry and beatnik lifestyle. The title of the poem ‘the screamers’ opens with ‘the screamers, stagger down overgrown sidewalks, of memory…” and goes on to juxtapose lyrics from Bo Diddley, paying homage to Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reed, the foundations of modern Rock & Roll.

“Everybody Needs Somebody” returns with another locked rock beat boosted by the chorus of voices singing ‘Everybody Needs Somebody’ and a swell of organ keeping the tension. The poet dives into “monk in orbit,” a most delightful historical tale of Allen Ginsberg turning on Thelonious Monk to LSD, setting John in his element of Bebop and Beatnik legends colliding in history by way of a technicolored gyroscopic portal of poetry. Featuring Andrew Robinson on synth dotting some buzzed phrases and electric kool-aid to the brew. The bard returns with his own anecdote and ode to Allen Ginsberg, reaffirming the trio of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg as the beats who started it all.

“Change My Life” opens with another straight-ahead beat and the return of Angie Brown and the vocals searing underneath the bard, describing how and why early blues musicians would modify the beat, the tempo, and so change the whole feel of the song. Changing beats. Al Clayton, James Sedwards and Jesse Wood exchange riffs, as Mr. Pratt drags the beat through an indie pop swamp. An upbeat beat poem about changing beats.

“Ain’t Nobody’s Business.” Testament to the genius of Youth and how he can rearrange and compose music for poems, turning them into totally new beasts, bringing back the chorus of voices, guitars and stomping drums at all the right places. Short and sweet, wrapping up John’s testament to an individualist anarchist perspective—our right to our own bad habits, a provocative role call of examples.

“My Buddy,” the poet’s tribute to Henry Normile, describing the tragic murder in Detroit of his best friend, made brighter in verse by describing Marcus Belgrave, his upturned horn, and the snowflakes falling inside as Belgrave played for Henry’s funeral procession. Recalling Henry’s last wishes that dance off the tongue like acrobatic spit balls ‘Cocaine, Pussy and Lobster, in that order.’ The weight and depth of a friendship forged in Detroit, a litany, epitaph, the poet’s Buddy, Henry Normile. “A….fucking…men” James Sedwards takes a tight solo around the Zodiac, Angie Brown kicks into another dimension of harmony, soul in the spirit of Badu, the music closes the poem with a well pitched instrumental epilogue.

“That Old Man” oozes the bass beauty of Youth, soothing organ of Michael and the gentle crooning of Angie Brown, who breaks into a captivating vocal solo demonstrating her range and soul power. The drums sound like the work of Fly. The poet serves up feedback from the long winding roads and mystery of love and relations. In his gentle and authoritative tone, the poet opens with a line from fellow poet Robert Lowell, “living without you is like learning to walk.” The poem goes on to question the distance between ex-lovers, counting the blessings of family, friends, and co-conspirators, “that old man, / still alive and kicking / with both feet” Yeah yer’ right.

“Brilliant Corners.” Jettisons off into a bed of ambient jelly, as if John’s voice were slowed down 1000 times, the work of Youth and Michael Rendall exploring the interspace of the poetry, like electronic seagulls, and thunder far off in the distance, the tide of a new Blade Runner washing over the synths. The poet delivers a long poem detailing the trajectory of the beats, now familiar names from these poems, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs. Introducing each revolutionary writer with biographical and bibliographic precision. The deep knowing and passion for each and every character, now bringing the be-bop all stars off the page and into the music. Ambient angels the size of cruise ships howling just beneath the storm clouds, sunlight occasionally breaking through, shrieking upon the faces of the genius under observation. Pistons hiss, and synthesizers gurgle as the poet fills in the points on a road map to his life’s journey. The track is brought to a close with an epilogue by Mark Stewart.

“Culture-cide.” An upbeat Brit funk protest anthem, programmed by Primal Scream and featuring guitar by Keith Levine, with a chorus hook sung by the Scottish band The View, and a part sung by Bobby Gillespie, the song chugs along with some big hats and menacing synthesiser garnishing. More vocals appear courtesy of Robb Spragg, of Alabama 3, adding to the gang. The poet brings the latest feedback from the frontline of the war on some drugs in America, his poem “It’s All Good” presents some hope by paying full respects to all the growers and suppliers of cannabis in Amsterdam, at the Cannabis Cup, and all around the world. Just when you thought it was over, a familiar Welsh voice starts up, it’s Howard Marks, on an hilarious philosophical journey through some reasoning about the war on drugs. Howard explodes into a surrealist rollercoaster of observations and uncensored provocation.

“Red Dress” (“Ruby My Dear”). A softly spoken jazz delight, once again visiting the music of Thelonious Monk, here talking romance of the woman in the red dress. Alex Ward on keys, with big Al Clayton and James Sedwards cooing from the tree tops, a pair of guitar cats playing under moonlight. Angie Brown swoops down to deliver the soul from above, high up there in the sensual regions of soul. “The music is soft and sweet and deep with intelligence.” I, Fly, lay down some sweet brush strokes, and the band drift across the sleeping city moments before dawn.

“Sitarrtha.” Back in the great temple of music we started in, saxophones squeal and rise in the distance, percussion swirling like a desert dust devil. “What is jazz?” The bard asks, and then goes on to present alternative scenarios as to the what. “What is blues” and a similar answer. I, fly, on drums with dampened sticks stroking the toms, breaking the beats. And the poem builds and charges up, bootstrapping from each previous statement, into the meat and the marrow of the listener. The saxophones reaching higher, the drums and percussion speed up, voices and saxophones shriek at each other. The bard walks straight into a pole, such is the force of the music. First hand experience of contact with John Coltrane, left in a John Coltrance. Leaving us with a choice to become as real as they are, those legendary musicians. The song and the poem demonstrate tension, build up and release respectively.

“Do It.” An ambient techno track produced by Youth and representative of his excursions into techno and electronica. John shares more advice on making it as an artist, retelling his experiences and then giving us the best advice he can, the only advice you can give: “Do It.” You have to make it through your actions, you have to get up and do these things which artists dream up, that is the perfect sentiment to summarize this album and the efforts to present it, for you, dear listener. Together with the time and money and logistics, it’s the willingness to do it, that made this all happen. Do it. Do it. Do it.

Beatnik Youth approaches a Magnum Opus in its reach, quality and totality. Here is the music and wefted into it, the history, a one-stop shop for first-hand feedback from the fabled 1960 cultural revolution, from John Sinclair, who Mick Farren so aptly called ‘The Last Of The Beatnik Warrior Poets.’ This album bridges British and American culture, outside of the mainstream channels, producing a lasting testament to our rebellious ancestors and innovators of hip.

Episode 736 is a special rebroadcast of the first part of John Sinclair’s R&B Christmas Special for the year 2000, just now discovered in a showbx full of cassettes and transferred into the digital domain just in time for the 2017 holidays, with timeless R&B and jazz seasonal music by Louis Armstrong, Milton Batiste, the New Birth Brass Band, Louis Prima, Count Basie & His Orchestra with Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra, Jimmy Rushing, Oscar McLollie & His Honey Jumpers, Eartha Kitt, Gladys Bentley, Mabel Scott, Big John Greer, Babs Gonzales, Don Vappie, Wallace Johnson, and James Andrews.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Cross Road Blues by John Sinclair. A poem taken from his book of blues in verse: Fattening Frogs For Snakes. (2002). Here performed at Cafe Zamen in Amsterdam North, as a part of the Radio Free Amsterdam Soundsystem event.

Monday, July 24, 2017

Amiri Baraka is the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism. He is a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe. With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements, Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became, though short-lived, the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics. The movement and his published and performance work, such as the signature study on African-American music, Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded "the cultural corollary to black nationalism" of that revolutionary American milieu.

Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987), a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina. The Essence of Reparations (2003) is Baraka's first published collection of essays in book form, radically exploring the interrelated issues of racism, national oppression, colonialism, neo-colonialism, self-determination and national and human liberation. He has taught at Yale, Columbia, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His awards and honors include an Obie, the American Academy of Arts & Letters award, the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts, Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants, Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey.

And when it comes to the annual Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue at
the Concert of Colors, that kind of question is purely rhetorical.

Over the past 10 years, Oak Park native Was (nee Fagenson), a
Grammy Award-winning producer and musician, has made his Revue a
highlight of not only the festival (which is celebrating its 25th
anniversary this year) but of the metro area concert calendar in
general. Combining established and up-and-coming artists -- as well as a
tremendous house band -- Was’ shows have been exhibitions of musical
imagination and invention that fans still refer to years later.

Saturday’s theme, “Songs Of Rebellion” -- inspired in part by the
50th anniversary of the Detroit uprising -- was a loose one. The 16
songs hailed mostly from the 60s and 70s and from the R&B realm,
with no real commentary during the show to tie things together. Rather,
Was and company let the music speak for itself, and if the show ran a
bit long at nearly two and a half hours you’d be hard-pressed to find
anything that could obviously be taken out of the mix.

Outside of John Lee Hooker’s “Motor City’s Burning” there was
surprisingly little in the eclectic set list specifically from Detroit
artists -- no Motown or Bob Seger’s “2+2=?,” for instance, that would
seem to fit the theme. That said, there was no shortage of killer
moments throughout the night. The idea of “best” is relative, but
standouts included a moving version of the Staples Singers’ “Respect
Yourself” by the Albion duo “The War & Treaty,” an exuberant romp
through Johnnie Taylor’s “I Am Somebody” by Detroit stalwarts Melvin
Davis and Dennis Coffey, a soulful treatment of Buffalo Springfield’s
“For What It’s Worth” by the Howling Diablos’ Martin “Tino” Gross and
Harmonica Shah,” and a roof-raising rendition of Gregory Porter’s “1960
What?” by the house band -- most of Was’ band Was (Not Was), featuring
solos by saxophonist David McMurray and trumpeter Rayce Biggs.

McMurray and Biggs also featured on an extended version of the
Roberta Flack/’Eddie McCann & Eddie Davis classic “Compared To What”
sung by Malik Alston, while guitarists Brian “Roscoe” White and Randy
Jacobs livened the Chi-Lites’ “(For God’s Sake) Give More Power To The
People” with solos, Jacobs playing part of his between his legs.
Stefanie Christian and Nadir turned Sly & the Family Stone’s “Stand”
and the Isley Brothers’ “Fight The Power” into powerhouse vocal
showcases, and John Sinclair, accompanied by guitarist Jeff Grand and
the house band, delivered a lengthy musical poem about the ‘67 riots
especially written for the show. The Tom Robinson Band’s “Power In The
Darkness” -- sung by the Layabouts’ Alan Franklin, was an inspired
surprise.

Crawford’s performance of “Lift Every Voice And Sing,” the “Black
American National Anthem” that dates back to 1899 and tied a fitting
bow around a night of provocative message music. As the entire cast on
stage for the end of the song, it capped another solid year for Was’
Revue and stoked expectations for next year’s 11th edition.

The Concert of Colors continues Sunday, July 16, in and around Detroit’s cultural center. Admission is free. Visit concertofcolors.com for details.

Mohawk - John Sinclair

High Times

Mark Ritsema and John Sinclair

FBFS

About Me

Born in Wordsley 1976. Currently living in Amsterdam, making live music, recorded music, live literature and recorded writings. I like to collaborate and share, what do you do? Please comment and let me know.